Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Palestinians Rally in Support of Prisoner on Hunger Strike

RAMALLAH, February 15, 2012 (WAFA) – Palestinians throughout the West Bank rallied Wednesday in support of Khader Adnan, the prisoner who has been on hunger strike for 60 straight days, according to various reports.

Dozens of Palestinians held a sit-in protest outside Ofer military camp near Ramallah demanding release of Adnan.

Confrontations broke out when Israeli soldiers used force to disperse the protesters.

Soldiers fired tear gas canisters and rubber-coated metal bullets at the demonstrators injuring at least one person who was hit by a rubber bullet. Many others suffered from tear gas inhalation.

Rights groups organized day-long hunger strike and sit-ins across the West Bank as part of the national day in solidarity with Adnan.

The Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organizations (PCHRO), a coalition of several human rights groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, released a statement expressing grave concern for what it described as the critical health condition of Adnan.

It said a doctor from the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights had visited Adnan on Tuesday and said he was “under a very direct threat of death.”

“All of his muscles, including his heart and his stomach, are under threat of disintegrating and his immune system could cease to function at any moment,” said the doctor. “Khader’s body is at high risk of sudden heart attack or total organ failure, which would cause imminent death.”

PCHRO urged the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union to take immediate action and intervene with Israel in the strongest manner possible to save Adnan’s life and end his arbitrary detention before it is too late.

Adnan, 35, a leader in the Islamic Jihad from the Jenin area, in the north of the West Bank, went on hunger strike in December protesting his arrest without charge or trial. An Israeli military court sentenced him to four months in administrative detention, and following an appeal by Adnan’s lawyers for his release, another military court rejected the appeal and upheld his detention order.